The Lord of Chaos was sitting on his throne, having a relaxed look. Playing with his spear, he said to himself:
“It feels so good having my revenge finally enacted. Seeing Twilight Sparkle and her annoying friends being turned into stone made me even forget the weight of these chains… It would be great to deal with that fox kid as well, but… I guess I’ll have to wait just a little longer for that. At least, I had the satisfaction of causing him some pain.”
Suddenly, one of his mirrors started to resonate, wanting to warn the Lord of Chaos about something.
“Seriously?” he asked. “Can’t I just enjoy this victory of mine just for once? What can be that urgent to disturb my moment of joy?”
Waving his hand, he made the mirror come to him and, with a gesture, made it reflect on his surface the image of a certain island, as the sun had already rose where a mirror portal opened and Jonagold came out from it.
“So, Star Knight’s little farmer friend decided to visit Rockhoof’s old village?” the Lord of Chaos asked. “What kind of emergency could he…
It was then he remember something that could explain his mirrors reaction.
“Wait… Don’t tell me… If that apple lover is on Rockhoof’s island, does that mean he’s looking for… his element? If that’s true, then Star Knight and his little friends must be looking for the Elements of Virtue. That can be troubling as they are the one thing right now that can undo the damages the Elements of Chaos have done and defeat the Pony of Shadows. At least they can’t use Ponhenge for the spell, as its magic was tainted by the Elements of Chaos, but even so… they can still figure something else.”
He thought for a few seconds and then said:
“I don’t have any other choice but to prevent them from putting their hooves over those elements. In fact, why don’t I start by getting rid of that apple pony. I heard he is one of Star Knight’s greatest friends. It would be my next step on my sweet revenge on that pesky little prince. First I took his mommy, now I’ll take one of his best friends. And since he’s searching for the Element of Strength, I’ll give him something to put on a big fight.”
With a gesture, he made the image of a certain place appear on the reflection of the mirror: the Isle of Dread. And so the Lord of Chaos chuckled in his evil way.
Arriving to Rockhoof’s island, Jonagold advanced towards the village, wondering where he should start looking for his shovel.
“Ah wish dah tree could have been more precise” Jonagold said, while walking. “How dah hay will Ah find dah shovel when Rockhoof could have hidden it anywhere on dah island? Maybe somewhere in dah ravine. After all, he dug it tah save his village.”
It was then that he arrived to the place where Rockhoof’s old village was settled. It was now in ruins and there was there a team of young ponies that were doing archeological work, with the one in charge appearing to be an earth mare with a medium gray coat with a pickaxe and a rock as a Cutie Mark, with a mane with two shades of grayish spring green mane and brilliant vermilion eyes. Seeing that, Jonagold realized that could be his way to find the shovel.
A pair of the young students, a colt and a filly, had just found something buried in the dirt and were just brushing off the dirt, as the young filly told to her professor, as she approached them:
“Professor Fossil! It's a Mighty Helm headpiece! Maybe it belonged to Rockhoof himself!”
“Legends don't wear helmets” she said, in a composed posture. “This belonged to a real pony.”
“Oh, I can guarantee Rockhoof was as real as you and me” a voice said.
Professor Fossil turned around and saw Jonagold approaching. Before his remark, she just released a mocking chuckle and then said:
“And I suppose that ravine was dug with his trusty shovel to save the village from an erupting volcano.”
“Probably” Jonagold replied. “If he really existed, then we can only conclude that he indeed dug the ravine.”
“My dear young colt, I love old legends as much as anypony” Professor Fossil told. “But a pony strong enough to save a village from rushing lava with a shovel is... preposterous.”
At that moment, however, one of the workers that was pickaxing hit a sensitive point that caused the big rock where they were digging to start rolling in direction of Professor Fossil and the two young foals, much to everyone’s shock. The professor and the two foals prepared to be hit by the rock, but that never came to happen.
When they opened their eyes, they saw, to their amazement, that Jonagold had been able to stop that immense boulder, ten times his size, with his back hooves. Jonagold used the strength he had to hold the boulder, despite the pressure he was putting on his hooves was starting to hurt him. However, using every bit of energy still in him, Jonagold was able to have enough strength to pull the boulder way, out of the village.
While he stretch his hind legs, Professor Fossil and her students got out of the digging place, both openmouthed for what they had just seen, along with the others, with the former saying:
“I can't believe you just did that. You… You saved us!”
“Ah bet if ya told somepony else dah story, it might sound..." Jonagold started, while making a fake gasp. “… preposterous."
It was then that the stallion that was there called their attention and pointed to the place where the boulder was, showing that there was something hiding behind it: an entrance that looked to be a thousand of years old. Approaching it, Jonagold observed inside and got surprised for what he just found. While he entered, Professor Fossil and the others also came to observe and the former told:
“I suppose some stories might be true...”
The secret entrance was to a small secret room, where, at the bottom, was a statue of Rockhoof, with a engraving of him using his shovel. But Jonagold’s attention was focused on something else: Rockhoof’s shovel, placed on an altar and with its metallic end rusty. He approached it and grabbed it with his mouth, causing, to everypony’s amazement, the shovel to shine with an orange glow.
“And Rockhoof's appears to be one of them” Professor Fossil added.
Jonagold was very satisfied for finding Rockhoof’s shovel. However, he couldn’t help but feeling it was too easy. He imagined it would be harder, as Rockhoof’s shovel was one of the things needed to stop the Pony of Shadows.
“I just can’t believe…” Professor Fossil said, while looking around. “This really is a great discovery! And it’s thanks to you, young colt…”
“Jonagold Apple” he replied.
“Well, young Jonagold, I have to thank you dearly” Professor Fossil, observing then the statue. “And this representation of Rockhoof… It looks so realistic… almost real.”
Jonagold also noticed that and, looking to the statue, he could sense it was emanating some kind of life. Approaching it, he extended his hoof and touched the statue. After he did that, he started to see things… more like memories that didn’t belong to him… but to Rockhoof.
Centuries ago…
Rockhoof was at his village, watching as his fellow villagers were leaving the island by boat with his fellow Mighty Helm warriors. He had been able to convince them to leave so that he could properly hide his shovel without anypony else knowing and also protect them from any threat that could have come for him and his shovel.
Closing his eyes, Rockhoof started to hear the waves crashing at the shores of the island. But there was something more there. He could feel the presence of three beings of evil.
“You three think you can hide?” Rockhoof asked, opening his eyes and turning around, with his shovel ready for battle. “I know you’re here… you despicable snake heads.”
Laughs then were heard, followed by some sibilating sounds.
“You really have a lot of guts to say something like that” a voice said, as its owner revealed herself to be Fury, one of the Gorgon sisters. “Especially when you’re cornered and outnumbered.”
And the other Gorgon sisters, Medusa and Euryale, also appeared, surrounding Rockhoof.
“A big pony like you should learn how to be careful with words” Fury said. “Don’t you know they can be… hurtful?”
“Please, Fury, as if a big pony like this one would care about that” Medusa said. “I bet what he does is nothing more than beat things up with his little shovel.”
“Don’t underestimate a Mighty Helm warrior, you beasts!” Rockhoof exclaimed, while preparing his shovel for battle.
“Beasts?!” Euryale repeated, offended. “How dare you?! How can you compare such beauties like us, but more especially me, to simple beasts?”
“Don’t you worry, sister” Fury said. “He will pay for everything.”
And so she attacked with her snakes, with Rockhoof defending himself with his shovel, but he got very little time to counterattack, as Medusa and Euryale also started to attack him as well. Despite being bigger and stronger than the three gorgons, Rockhoof couldn’t help but remain on the defensive, as their attacks were very well coordinated and effective.
However, he knew he couldn’t remain like that forever and her code as a Mighty Helm prevented him for using such tactics. Even he would fall against them and have his shovel taken, he knew his fellow Pillars would carry on their mission to protect the other Elements of Virtue. And so he decided to pass to the offensive. Using his shovel to block their snakes and their petrifying blasts, he advanced without fear against them.
But it was then that Euryale disarmed him from him shovel using her snakes, while Medusa used hers to bind Rockhoof and subdue him thanks to their bite. He tried to free himself, but he just couldn’t. Fury, laughing, approached him and told him:
“Don’t even bother to try to free yourself. Our snakes have a very special venom that can take away your strengths.”
“There’s no escape now” Medusa added.
“You should be honored for being defeated by beauties like us” Euryale told.
“You wish to any of those words to be truth, you hideous reptile” Rockhoof replied.
Feeling angered by those words, Euryale prepared to attack him, but Fury stopped her, telling her:
“Relax, dear sister, there’s no need for that. We already have what our master told us to get.”
She prepared to take the shovel, but when she touched it, she felt an immense burn that caused her to release a moan of pain and immediately drop the shovel.
“Sister, what’s wrong?” Medusa asked.
“That stupid shovel…” she said. “It burned me.”
Hearing that, Rockhoof chuckled and said:
“Looks like you can’t touch an object with a powerful light magic like mine.”
Fury looked at him with an angered look.
“What are we going to do?” Medusa asked. “The Lord of Chaos wants the Element of Strength. I don’t want to suffer one of his punishments.”
“Me neither, so let me think” Fury replied.
“So I guess you need to think faster” Euryale told. “Look there.”
The other gorgons looked and saw one of the Mighty Helms’ ships approaching.
“Great… that’s what we needed” Fury said.
“What’s the big deal?” Euryale asked. “We just have to petrify them. That’s like our best move.”
“And risk having him escape my snakes?” Medusa asked. “No way. He’s too much dangerous.”
“Then we have no other choice” Fury said. “I think the Lord of Chaos will understand. If we can’t give him the shovel, then I guess we can always give him the second best thing: the end of a Pillar.”
Knowing what their sister meant, Medusa and Euryale both smiled wickedly and they all turned to Rockhoof, with their eyes starting glow. He tried to not look, but it was too late for that…
In the present…
After witnessing that memory, Jonagold came to his senses, not believing he had just discovered what happened to Rockhoof. That was not a statue of him. That was him, turned into stone by the gorgon sisters. His fellow Mighty Helm warriors must have hidden him and the shovel in that hidden chamber for safe-keeping. However, Jonagold knew what he had to do: take Rockhoof to the Generals to see if they could turn him back to normal.
Suddenly, it was heard a loud noise, followed by screams and a roar.
“But what dah…” he started.
The ponies that were inside came in quickly and Professor Fossil asked:
“What happened?”
“There’s a big monster here!” the stallion said. “It’s big and hairy… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Knowing that had the Lord of Chaos’ doing, Jonagold, with the shovel, went outside and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A big hairy five-legged monster was stomping around, doing nothing but going on a rampage. Before that, Jonagold quickly recognized it as being a Quintaped, the creatures Star and Moonlight had told him about.
“That monster is destroying everything!” Doctor Fossil exclaimed. “All our work… the relics…”
“Ah’m sorry, professor, but that should be dah least ov our problems” Jonagold said. “Please, remain inside. This out here is goin’ tah get messy.”
She did so, along with the others, and Jonagold prepared to face the terrible beast that was before him. Now Jonagold understood the reason for all the fuss around the Quintaped. They were terrifying looking and they physical power alone and rampaging behavior caused them to be quite dangerous. However, he remembered Star mentioning their known weakness: water. If he could just push it to the water, maybe that way he could get rid of it. But the problem was the way he would do something like that.
Noticing Jonagold, the Quintaped advanced towards him. With no time to think of a plan, Jonagold just advanced towards it, with the shovel as his only mean of defense. Arriving there, he tried to strike one of its legs with the shovel, but it would appear that the impact did no harm to the beast. It then kick him against the ground and, approaching, it grabbed and lifted him, preparing to put him in its mouth.
Thinking quickly and acting on an impulse, Jonagold was able to use the shovel and hit the creature’s eyes. That caused a lot of pain to the Quintaped, which roared in pain and ended up throwing Jonagold away, in direction of the volcano. Falling into the cratter, Jonagold ended up landing on a ledge, apparently unconscious.